Meera’s abortion is nobody’s business

As if dealing with the psychological and emotional baggage of losing a child isn’t enough, Meera now has to worry about reputational damage and how to show face to the public. PHOTO: EXPRESS

“Meera denies abortion” read the headline in a story published in The Newson April 10, 2012. Whereas this piece of news might have piqued the curiosity of many and gained many clicks and views, all I felt after reading this piece was pity and shame; I felt terribly ashamed of our media.

Have we stooped so low so as to humiliate and disclose details of someone’s personal life? Celebrity or not, reporting on someone’s abortion, obviously meant to be kept secret, oversteps a line and is unethical to say the least. The article mentions how Meera was repeatedly phoned and hounded, after which she switched her cellphone off.

This is blatant and unabashed harassment. While this form of aggression in gaining information to secure a news story might be considered acceptable in extreme circumstances, Meera getting an abortion does not meet that criteria. I am shocked that this piece of idle gossip even found space in one of the leading newspapers of our country.

It is this simple: journalists have no business reporting on whether or not Meera had an abortion.

I haven’t studied journalism, but am still aware of the clause of ‘harm limitation’, which says that journalists are duty bound to show compassion and protect the reputation of those they are reporting about. Why have journalists in Pakistan forgotten how to do this? Does being a ’controversy queen’ mean that Meera must be followed, harassed and publicly shamed?

It is reported in the story that Meera’s father-in-law was contacted, who disclosed that he was ‘shocked’ by the news. The story hints at the father of this baby being Meera’s fiancé’ Captain Naveed Pervaiz - the name Meera registered in the hospital under. Again, this is a cheap attempt at yellow journalism, aimed at encouraging gossip. The article claims that Meera and her father-in-law have a troubled relationship – a cheap shot at trying to ape Indian soaps and get people talking – adding needless spice to an article. If the term ‘trash sells’ holds any weight, this article is sure proof. It troubles me greatly to think what our aspiring journalists are learning by the example set by our media today.

“Doctor-patient confidentiality is based upon the general principle that a person seeking medical help or advice should not be hindered or inhibited by fear that his or her medical concerns or conditions will be disclosed to others.”

Why then was Meera denied this privilege? I don’t pretend to endorse anything the actor has done, but I do believe that she should be entitled to the basic rights the rest of us enjoy.

Meera must be suffering a painful ordeal as the result of this news article. I can say this because I personally know two people who have had to undergo abortions because the fetus had died in their uterus. Seeing the emotional and physical pain they suffered due as a result of this just makes me wonder how Meera is coping, if indeed the news is true. As a woman, my heart goes out to her. As if dealing with the psychological and emotional baggage of losing a child isn’t enough, she now has to now worry about facing to the public and being questioned and labeled.

Whether she carried a child out of wedlock or not, this piece of news crosses a personal boundary. It is obvious that the film-star did not desire any publicity based on her abortion. Why weren’t her wishes honoured? Does she deserve to be harassed and exposed because she is a celebrity? Have journalists crossed all boundaries, to the extent that they would land up with a camera in someone’s bedroom just to get a scoop?

Shame on our media.

Correction: An earlier version of this post stated that the news appeared in April 2011. This has been changed to April 2012.

Former Blogs Desk Head and Senior Sub-Editor at The Express Tribune. She is a business graduate from the Queen's School of Business who tweets @ZahraPeer (twitter.com/ZahraPeer). She blogs at zahrapeer.wordpress.com

More by this writer

this is what we are good at. our media is cheap and remind us again n again, how illiterate and hypocrite we are. Recommend

Ali

Abortion is not private business and a right here. Abortion of a healthy child is a crime by law.Recommend

Ramis

And what are ‘you’ doing Zahra? I didn’t know of any Meera abortion before this piece.Recommend

Parvez

……..and madam, how have you helped by writing this ?
You could have kept the gory details and names out but you didn’t.Recommend

mm

there’s no check and bound on pakistani media just like every other thing running in this country, be it govt.,army or even a person who sells milk..right now media is considered as the only powerful tool in pakistan, only hope for common people through which you can make your voice heard to the higher authorities, but with great power comes the great responsibility, which media has failed to fulfill … but then media just represents us so we should rethink what we areRecommend

zahra.mohammed

I didn’t add details that weren’t already in the very public news article, which undoubtedly, many have read. I called attention to what should not have been done. Yes, writing this piece called even more attention to a personal event, but I believe silence on the subject would have been even worse.

Get a LIFE people! Who cares & why should we care? It’s a personal matter, truth or untrue. Get your noses out of other people’s business & be worried about your own selves!Recommend

mokh

The writer has written on a topic that was unknown to me and perhaps others as comments have said.However the main thrust of the article is laudable-it IS high time the media here matured and respected the boundaries of decency and privacy when reporting.They also need to take a look at some of their programmes which are just intrusively highlighting the miseries of ordinary people without being of any practical help to them or encouraging superstitious beliefs in the supernatural instead of trying to find rational explanations for phenomenaeRecommend

http://www.mzahoor.blogspot.com maryam zahoor

of course, if somebody is killing their baby, how is it our issue.
we as a society must remain tolerant of people who murder their babies born or unborn.Recommend

Arsalan Bajwa

The doctor, the hospital staff and the administration of this hospital should be punished. They violated the doctor patient confidentiality , they leaked private information. This doctor should have her license cancelled.
Abortion is a woman’s right. It’s her body, her choice. The men in our society have taken their fixation with controlling women to ridiculous lows, now they want to control women’s bodies also. Women are not the private property of men. Whether to carry a pregnancy to full term or to abort is a woman’s choice and her right.Recommend

FS

Zahira peer mohammad, thanks for informing the big news, by this you also be part of yellow journalism.Recommend

syed ali shahid

hey i did not know that. thank you zahra for letting me know that meera got an abortion…Recommend

Neha

I am completely pro choice. This is her life, it’s her decision. It’s not even a baby yet. It’s nothing. It’s a bunch of cells, if you’ve ever studied biology, you can not even call it a person. Her personal privacy was violated, which is very wrong. And crime by law? Really? So is murder. But don’t see anyone being so emotional about that. Let Meera live her life. And for all intents and purposes, I think she made the right decision, rather than bringing an unwanted child into this world.Recommend

http://islamabad Maryam

@Ali:

its a crime killing a healthy fetus. who knows(if the news is true) there might be some complications or the fetus died due to any reason.

Pakistani media has just crossed the line. nobody has a right to peek in someone’s personal life and then publish it with taking permission.

there are no laws, everyone is journalist, covering someone’s story.

take the case of soldiers and civilians in siachen, going to their homes and covering their wives n children is so not right.Recommend

Sumaira khan

Lolxxx I wonder that what writer is doing after writing this ? I guess news channels or news papers are not the places where most of us visit daily but the face book and you are writting this here ? Well you need to think for yourself 1st that what you lecturing or to whom you lecturing because in my point of view you ate not correcting people morally but informing everyone but informing about this incident to everyone on a forum where you can get maximum audience Recommend

Farooq

when a man throws acid on his wife, it is cruelty, inhuman and everyone should speak againt it. Whena woman kills his child before birth (abortion) it is a private matter and we should not talk about that. Thats what you are trying to tell us Hazrat Author. Recommend

Uzma Farhan

We are a Muslim country. We follow Islam. I am of the opinion that immorality is not privacy. Breach of Privacy is that our media shows victims of rape and violence. But Meera having an abortion when she denies being married is immoral. What kind of society are we leaving for our children? Are we supporting this kind of conduct? Media coverage in our country requires evolution and revolution both but please let us be very clear on the fact that social pressures are important. Children today are engaging in immoral activities simply because we the society thinks it’s PERSONAL. If it affects my child it is not personal. My utter disgust to the writer for highlighting this in this fashion. Issue is different. Do not pollute public opinion by giving a twisted angle to an already twisted story. Recommend

that might be her way of gaining cheap publicity… this is called publicity stunt my dear… and most actors/actresses do it to be in news… this is what she has been doing from time to time… and veena too… check out veena-babrick episode of nadia khan show on youtube… u’ll get to know what our ‘stars’ do just because they want to remain in news…Recommend

Me also, I am completely pro-choice. BUT there are 101 ways for choosing not to have a baby BEFORE concieving. Why don’t you people choose one of those methods?? Why come to a stage where you have to debate that abortion is not a murder .. “its just a mass of cells” .. how cruel you are! The day a sperm fertilizes an egg ….. a new life starts .. you accept it or not, this is the truth. Killing this new life is a murder from all points of view.Recommend

Meera Ghani

Just as a point of information, the Dr. never gave our any information about Meera. The quotes were embellished. Its always good to do a bit of fact checking. After reading the high unethical article in The News I did some calling. Upon inquiry I found that the Dr. was questioned by the reporter on general hospital rules and under what circumstances if any abortions are carried out at the facility. The doctor merely answered those questions and mentioned that abortion are only carried our incase of complications during the pregnancy.

I completely agree with Zahra and the others who have said its none of the media’s business or ours. A woman’s body is her own and no matter who she is, she has a right to choose and a right to privacy. Its none of our business as a society.

The reporter had not right harassing Meera and the editors have clearly no interest in printing anything but trash- whatever helps sell their papers.

This was highly unethical on their part and such reporting in Pakistan can often lead to endangering people.Recommend

pikachu

those who did not know about the articel should read newspaper…the article, the author is talking about, was big enough so not to miss the eye and was published in The News dated 11th april on page 4….so guys if you dont know something does not mean its not there…because it is
it is allegedly a case of missed abortion meaning that the fetus had already died in uterus so meera had all the right to get an abortion even by the pakistani law
the news reporter has mentioned that it was the director of the hospital who gave some information like the name ‘Nadeem’ and it was not the doctor who leaked any information since she cannot be contacted
after reading the article i was also feeling the same as the author has expressed…the media should know its limits…..Recommend

SMA

Really media play there cheap role, in every aspect of our nation.Recommend

Im not going to advocate people running around and having an abortion at will , it seems even more abhorent, however to bring children into the world who will be shunned (due to lack of wedlock of the parents) or the main reason women in PK have abortions, ie poverty.
It should be a crime to produce unwanted, uncared for children who have no future.Recommend

Umad

If the abortion is for the sake of saving the life of mother then it is allowed otherwise Abortion of healthy child is a crime and considered as Murder… other other point is Meera is not a married women then how she got pregnant??? you Miss writer ur heart is falling for the women who got pregnant before marriage??( we all know the punishment of this as mentioned to us by ALLAH.. NOw wht u say????Recommend

muhammad adnan

yes its her personal problem but its a criminal proceeding…. in paksitan according to the LAWW u cannot have pre marital sex regardless with consent or not.. if a woman comes with n abortion case saying im not married.. its a straight FIR … so its her internal matter but shes done a crime according to pakistani law.. she shud have gone abroad and done her abortion so no one wud knw abt it and paksitan law wudnt kick in Recommend

Malik Mehar

Abortion has become a normal social practice. It will take time to accept it as part of routine lifeRecommend

Shahbaz lodhi

This doesn’t make any difference to some one so chill dude””””Recommend

Mr.D

Why write about it in the first place if you think it’s none of our business. With all due respect, you are being a hypocrite. You just spread the news around, Thanks. -_-.Recommend

Nasir Iqbal

Oh writer want to write make as many crimes as you want and media and police has no right its just your personal life and personal actions. Dear Its crime by Law and this must be reported and strict action must be taken against it. Recommend

elementary

@Nasir Iqbal:
I guess you will also be very interested in names of all those who are arrested for “hudood ordinance” not only names but full story with all the salacious details.Recommend

syed ali zia jaffery

A superbly written article; media has no rationale for making a mountain of a molehole.Recommend

elementary

I am absolutely disgusted at the doctor who acted completely against professional ethics and revealed personal details about her patient to a third party; she should be stripped of her medical license and prosecuted for breach of confidentiality.(This is what would happen in all the civilized world out there).

I am even more disgusted at the media group who showed equally abysmal prfessional standards for actively seeking and publishing this report.Recommend

elementary

@Ali:
therefore every woman having abortion should have full news and media coverage.when will we grow out of our sick mentality,if ever.Recommend

elementary

@Farooq:
Abortion does not mean “killing a child”. It means getting a fetus out of the womb which may already be dead ,about to die or is endangering mother’s life. Recommend

geeko

@maryam zahoor:
Considering the kind of society Pakistan has become – for a lot of peoples – abortion might be a charity and not a crime “against God”, and I don’t really blame them.

And of course Meera’s abortion is nobody’s business, to be honest, I didn’t even know about that and probably wouldn’t have for some decades, but that’s Pakistan, the intellectual debates float around Veena Malik’s nudity one day, Mathira’s top-less parade the other and Meera’s unknown abortion the next ; don’t know if it tells more about our structural misogyny or our cultural decadence, to be honest. Recommend

http://www.identitymag30.wordpress.com Ayesha Siddiqui

I agree with you, some of our journalists forget the journalism ethics. Recommend

Afridi

this is personal secrecy and media shoud be punished for bringing that news on tv. this is just like maya khan show chasing young couple Recommend

Farah Kamal

well even to me this is news, never heard of it before this article.Recommend

http://Karachi Mariam

One of the many con’s of being in the public eye. Wish our media would cover more important news though, like the soldiers in Siachen.Recommend

alicia

I didn’t know about this before you wrote this blog. Anyway I can’t care less about Meera. Recommend

http://birmingham elementary

@Umad:
Even if she became pregnant out of wedlock she still remains a human being(you may find it hard to nod in affirmative on this one ) and therefore retains all her basic rights including the right to privacy.Recommend

http://birmingham elementary

@Ramis:
I think writer did a great job in highlighting the unprofessional conduct of the doctor and irresponsible behaviour of the media group.
Sweeping things under the carpet is not the solution you must speak up to make public aware of such irresponsible acts.Recommend

http://twitter.com/adnanjabbar Dr. Adnan

Abortion by International Medical Law is condemned unless if the fetus is pronounced dead. Still in many countries if the fetus enters into 1/2 of the 1st Trimester it’s illegal to have an abortion. Second thing which the writer has mentioned that She is very well aware of the haram limitation then I would love to remind the author of this article that it’s also haram to be in a sexual relationship in a non Nikkah state as Ms. Meera was just engaged as you mentioned Capt. Naveed as Meera’s fiance.

On the other hand the doctor did violated the Patient Doctor Privacy and should be processed under Medical Criminal / Privacy Clause of International Medical & General Practice Law. Stripping her from her ranks should be the responsibility of the board of medical professionals who will do a cross-examination on her testimony.

Just a small request if you are on a ET writer list stop defending people who have done wrong.

why no reaction when media showed naveed’s first wife sheeba and little daughter on every channel for days without sheeba’s agreement? none of pakistan public spoke of yellow journalism when that woman’s life and her baby’s pictures were in front of the whole world. read sheeba’s blog and you can see all her pain. she had miscarriage with naveed before they had this baby and she was a loving wife and new mother when naveed and meera started the affair. she was just living her life and all media start reporting on her because of what meera and naveed have been doing for past few years. sheeba is still waiting for americn courts to allow her divorce that naveed refused to give her. he and meera put their pictures online and go on tv about engagement and now this. if meera didn’t want such things in media she should have thought about the woman whose life she was destroying when she got in that married man’s bed. all pakistani media reports all these things because public is sick enough to want to watch and read and gossip. they didn;t care about innocent mother sheeba, why care about a woman who lies and steals husbands? naveed cheated wife and little daughter and lied about it and now his baby with meera is gone and whole world knowsRecommend

http://www.thebfagency.com Kevin Landon

Hi,

Before i begin, let’s make sure everyone knows who Zahra is and why she is so disgusted by Meera’s story being reported.

“Zahra Peer Mohammed”
The author has completed her bachelors from Queen’s School of Business and is now working for Express Tribune as a sub-editor.

Bravo! The media did its part, and so did you. Considering how many people read the news paper today, and comparing to how many people have access to online sources, you sure did put in your 2 cents. I have no good side for the media for their unethical behavior and you are a just as much a part of this media you’ve criticized thru out your article. In order to generate a few clicks and justify your job, you have just grown the number of people who knew about Meera’s incident from a thousand to a million.

I have no sympathies for Meera, just as you do not, but we as human beings will always get our equal share. What goes around, comes around. =]Recommend

Stumped

Just read the story in ‘The News’. I’ve stopped reading/watching GEO-like publications for quite sometime. The article strengthens my lack of trust in that newspaper.

The kind of effort put into investigative journalism to find out ‘Yeh bacha kis ka tha’ by the journalist could’ve been used to unearth trillions of rupees worth of corruption in the government – would’ve been worth a Pulitzer not to mention awesome public service.Recommend

Sam

@Marium:

NOT ONLY HER CHOICE… NOT ONLY HER CHILD….. Just like the author of this blog.. yuo are thinking out of the peanut that fell out of a kids lap!..

I mean this is the HEIGHT of Super Feminism and Liberal-Extremism!…. Like a comment earlier …Acid thrown on someone’s face is NOt a private matter.. a Cheating wife is beaten up by her Lawfully wedded husband.. NOT private matter….yet “Adultery and Abortion” two major offenses NOT only by state law but by religious bounds as well. And yes.. We are HUMANS.. choosing to live in SOCIETY bound by certain norms and values that make this society a less chaotic and more morale set up….. If this is PRIVATE AND JUSTIFIED… then id LOVE to see the writer support a MAN KICKING A PREGNANT WOMEN’S WOMB AND KILLING the unborn child!…. HIS CHILD HIS DECISION!!!…Recommend

I am the exit

to wanna be and new liberals:
A public figure’s life is , well public.
As a paparazzi in the US since that would be more reassuring
to our salve minds..Recommend

syed hussain

Pakistani media is going through the process of evolution. It is immature and naive. They have gone crazy about rating of their channels. In the name of news, they malign people, prove them guilty before any trial. Have a look on the method, a news is aired, sometime background music and songs are played relevant to the headline of the story. It seems as if a throng of idiots has captured a very vital position and now the self respect of every person is at risk. Several times media inflict damages and disfigure personal life of people but they take it as a duty. Whether someone likes to come or not in front of camera, they stand in front of the person and hold him/her answerable for their questions. There should be an embargo on such type of reporting. Recommend

Intelektual

Other people’s private Life is no one elses buiness !
Especially such sensitive issues..
Hundreads of illegal abortions are done every day but only Meera’s worth reporting when the orignal report establishes it was legal !!
Our deep sighted hypocricy and making someone’s life into petty gossip in the name of entertainment is something we should be ashamed of !
On the topik of abortion itself ! as if there aren’t already hundreads of thousands of screwed up under privalaged and abused children that we should bring more to increase the suffering !
Pakistan is no Welfare State n jus forget about being an Islamic Welfare state ! If the state cant take even modest care of those children and the parent especially the mother does not or can not have them where are they supposed to go ! Perhaps they should be left for our bigoted extremist to abuse or train as target killers !
Killing an unborn zero conscience fetus and killing a born feeling dreaming walking talking human being everyday of their misrable under-previlaged life ! i would pick the lesser of the two evils everytime..Recommend

Meera must be suffering a painful ordeal as the result of this news article……….. and this blog, I never knew anything about her abortion before reading this blog!!!!Recommend

Wahwah khan

Never heard of this news before . By the way why people love to write more about sex related stuff…lolRecommend

Carlos

Never heard of this news before , thank you for keeping us updatedRecommend

HZA

Now here’s comes another “Mazlumo Ki Sathi”. When Meera’s English and finance is YOUR business (Bread and butter for a blogger/journalist like you) then why not her illegitimate child ? Recommend

http://Birminham elementary

@Dr. Adnan:
You miss the whole point of the article. Writer was not defending meera’s action.she was pointing out the irresponsible behaviour of media and the doctor concerned.Recommend

Zaid A.

@Sam:
This rot has come as a result of a sorry dynamic. It is promoted by Radical Feminism (RAD-FEMS) and Liberal Relativists (REL-LIBS). Both have little sense of balance. They have a so-called benchmark of faux modernity, that a thin elite is imposing on all the rest. In the West, it is the 1% versus the 99%. In South Asia, it is the 0.1% versus the 99.9%. This is the great gift given to us Desi-s, by Macaulay Saab.
.

The RAD-FEM+REL-LIB combine, mindlessly chant words like ‘freedom’, ‘choice’, ‘personal’, ‘independence’, ‘rights’. These they understand as absolutes, without appreciating the nuances they acquire given the context of culture and mores. These are the new set of demagogues. They adopt an extreme attitude, which receives an extreme response from the Religious Fundamentalists (REL-FUN) and Social Conservatives (SOC-CON). The REL-FUN+SOC-CON, have no time for patience and negotiation. Therefore, they seek extreme restraints on the agenda of the RAD-FEM+REL-LIB, leading to an eye for an eye. And this is leaving our countries, our culture, our families, our communities, our societies … deeply damaged.
.

It is not too unlike the situation that caused the 1857 mutiny in Barrackpore when Muslim and Hindu sepoys were forced to bite into lard and tallow coated cartouches.
We are being, in much the same manner, being forced to accept that the agenda of the RAD-FEMS+REL-LIBS is for ‘your own good’. There is no need for us to accept it. As a civilisation we have lost the ability to keep sanity and seek our own balanced solutions.
And this is made even worse, by the fake liberalism of the immature. This writer and this blog is an example / symptom of that malaise. One has to wonder, how long can this diktat driven demagoguery persist.Recommend

Lone Star

Is there no privacy protection act in my dear country, or is it only for civilized countries? Dr. Shahida Khawaja should be charged.Recommend

http://birmingham elementary

@Zaid A.:
and sir ,the balanced solution is…………………?????.
I couldn’t figure out if you were concurring with absolutely convoluted thinking of sam above, if you were then I am not interested in your solution.Good day.Recommend

Twilight

Very smart ET! Very Smart strategy indeed! Many of us naive souls wouldn’t have known of this incident nor about Mathira’s had the headlines not flashed on our newsfeed on Facebook. Kudos for raising ‘awareness’!!!!!Recommend

Pakistani Agnostic

Lol. ET you are destroying yourself. This author just made that news popular. Shame on you author and ET!Recommend

Bilal

@maryam zahoor:
the baby died inside the womb and it was called a ‘missed abortion’ meaning the ultrasound report conducted by Dr Waseem showed that there was no fetal activity, which means that the foetus was dead and it was threatening to the her thus she is not a murderer by any means but a victim, it time that ourselves and us respect our starsRecommend

Ayesha Khan

@Mohammad Assad: “And what is the point of bringing up a year old news?”

Frankly I did not know about Meera-abortion-case before I read this article.After reading the details of what happened,given in explicit details by the author in her article,I think it was the best thing that could happen to the un-born child.If the child was allowed to be born he/she would have had to undergo much more mental torture throughout his/her life,along with Meera.As Meera denies her previous marriage and she is not yet married to the captain -she is just a fiancee,according to the article – so she is a free person.Socially(western)speaking,What a free person does is sure nobody”s-business till his/her action affect others.I agree with the author of this article,its nobody”s-business because she is a celebrity Recommend

Baba Ji

If seeing her in scantly dressed up pics is ur business, knowing about her affairs is our business, watching her getting engaged is our business, listening to her rant day and night is our business then her abortion is also our business …
what hypocritic idiocy …. if she wants to be in lime light then she better be careful in selecting her protection !!!! Recommend

Shah

Wow !! Surprised to see the number of comments on a piece of writing, titled “Meera’s abortion is nobody’s business”. I mean come on guys is this something even debatable?Recommend

Norwegian-Pakistani

Shame on media for intruding in someone’s personal and private matter. The doctors and the hospital must be punished for not protecting their patient’s confidentiality. This is so unfortunate and very unethical!Recommend

http://birmingham elementary

@Pakistani Agnostic: This report was already published in one of the major newspapers of pakistan.
ET’s mediawatchdog section did a good job in pointing out this piece of yellow journalism.Recommend

Syed Ali Zia Jaffery

@Farooq:

You are inkling towards a very important epidemic that has marred us. We even pick and choose between crimes; we sometimes circumvent the most heinous of crimes simply because we ourselves are doing so.

Well yes,media should respect everyone’s privacy,if someone is not willing to share something with you,then don’t bug the person.Thank you!Recommend

DejaVu77

@Zahra: You were all correct in your response till you said “I believe”. Perhaps the so-called yellow journalist had some reasons also to “believe” in what he wrote. Meera or any other person, abortion is a crime unless really necessary for medical reasons. Protecting such an act is like supporting a murderer. It’s a shame that we are living in a society where police role is close to non-existent and when you highlight an issue you ar asked to go to courts… Knowing how much it takes to prove something there.Recommend

Fauzia Mussarat

Really embarrassing that our media has crossed the boundaries… I don’t like Meera.. but I do appreciate the privacy concerns she requires not being a celebrity but being a woman..Recommend

While we might believe that abortion wrong, Meera still has a right to privacy. Hounding her and printing news about the alleged abortion is even more WRONG that what she allegedly did. Her name has been publicly marred for a PRIVATE matter.

Secondly, mr Muhammad adnan talks about punishment for women who indulge in premarital relations with men. Mr Adnan, what about the PUNISHMENT for the MEN who also take part? Why are you people always after PUNISHING women and IMPOSING your MORALITY on them? For a change do the same for men.Recommend

Abdullah

And ET can only give space to articles related to Sex, Abortion, Gays, Lesbians … as if the whole Pakistan is pervert…Recommend

Zain

I am sorry but you further expanded the news…..I am sorry to say how free time you all journalist have in pakistan to write about something which has no worth. Maybe if you have internet at your disposal-you should check, celebrities all over the world are in spotlight for everything they do…..Recommend

MM

Yet sadly, we do not actually all enjoy any privacy rights. If not the media, the people of Pakistan unabashedly meddle in other people’s business are more than ready to spread false rumors. What the media is doing is just an extension of our messed up culture.Recommend

AV Bhagowal

The article exactly does what the write bemoans about journalism.Many readers who
had no idea of the details of the episode are now fed with the same.If it is a private affairs,then the writer should have also respected this principle and not gone into the details.Recommend

Awais

Thanks to the author, now everyone knows about Meera’s abortion! Recommend

aisha

Using the term ‘abortion’ itself isn’t the right journalistic approach in writing this article, let alone using it in the title.Recommend

Ali

…and mentioning the name of the other newspaper in your blog is white journalismRecommend

slxslippy

@Parvez:
Well said. That’s what I was thinking when I read this. Recommend

Muskan

@maryam zahoor:
What a retarded statement. There is a difference between a fetus and a human being who has already arrived in this world. Otherwise why do we use date of birth and not date of conception?Recommend